ALLIGATOR: Trust Alligator for One Stop Shop Solution

Founded 66 years ago in Cape Town, custom product specialist, Alligator, has grown significantly and is now an industry leader in design, manufacturing, sourcing and supply of promotional and retail products. The company works from its manufacturing facility in Epping to provide a one stop shop for companies looking for branded products and corporate marketing that goes beyond the traditional. The likes of Nedbank, KFC, Coca-Cola, Nissan, BMW, Canon, DHL, Discovery, Vodacom, KPMG, and many more have chosen Alligator as a trusted marketing partner.

In October 2018, Managing Director and second-generation family leader, Stephen Marks told Enterprise Africa that the company was busy gearing up for expansion to better serve clients, and add to its already strong and star-studded customer base. By investing heavily in technology, lean manufacturing principles, and the local economy, Alligator would become an internationally renowned organisation that could weather the storms in the SA economy and continue to grow.

“The long-term vision is to maintain steady year-on-year growth at competitive prices, whilst providing a safe and secure environment for all staff to work and grow,” he said.

Today, much progress has been made. Like its namesake, the company is sharp, efficient, agile and strong.

CLAWING MARKET SHARE

By investing heavily in lean principles, Alligator has managed to handle all aspects of business faster and has seen the company move towards a more corporate set up.

“We have moved on from a family run business to a much more professional and structured operation,” explains Marks. “We have invested heavily in human capital to ensure improved customer service and satisfaction. This has led to the business developing a strong senior management team, one capable of managing the business in a completely professional manner with or without the founding family.”

The company now works towards to the vision: ‘To be the brand that creates products that bring our customer’s brands to life’, and the mission statement: ‘Alligator prides itself on exceeding customer expectations through the design and supply of creative product and merchandising solutions underpinned by ethical business practices for the benefit of all stakeholders’.

Since October 18, there has been expansion of the product range to help the Alligator brand grow among clients old and new.

“Alligator is now even better positioned to offer an even better and more efficient one stop shop solution for customers where brand identity is of the utmost importance,” says Marks.  “In addition to our already extensive service offering, Alligator is proud of our end-to-end service offering for client uniforms. All products are meticulously designed in-house to best represent each individual customer’s needs whether the customer is a fast food chain or a bank. Thereafter, the program becomes one of stock control, quality control, complaints management and ultimately client service in quick turnaround time to pick, pack and deliver.”

By adding new technology to this process, real time data is now available which is beneficial for both Alligator and its clients.

“During the lockdown where revenue dropped significantly, we put our focus into our new cloud-based ERP system, a project we commenced 12 months prior to the lockdown. A project such as this is a huge undertaking, but the rewards have been massive. All our ‘full solution on-line shop clients’ now have live data being pushed through to the website – such as stock on hand – as well as the ERP system pulling information from the website directly into our ERP system e.g. sales orders,” details Marks.

LOCKDOWN BITES

Like so many organisations, the lockdown period in South Africa has infringed on the business of Alligator in a big way. Retailers, manufacturers and FMCG companies have been put under extreme pressure while the flow of money in the economy was effectively halted. But the manufacture, sourcing, and distribution of premium branded goods forms a vital part of many marketing strategies.

Branded merchandise leaves a lasting impression – the Promotional Products Association International regularly undertakes research which reveals that distribution of promotional products is advertising you can feel. The PPAI states that 88% of people remember the advertiser on a promotional product. Research also suggest that promotional products are ideal for creating awareness with 82% of people saying they own one and 47% saying they have kept them for over a year. According to Promotional Products Work, a campaign that involves tangible promo materials is the only advertising your customers will thank you for. With this in mind, Alligator could not simply stop or pause its work. Instead, the company adapted to the environment and delivered vital products for clients.

“Since Covid and lockdown, Alligator has obviously been impacted like all other companies,” admits Marks. “In April when lockdown was first introduced, we converted our bag manufacturing facility into a mask manufacturing facility. We invested more capital in dye sublimination printing machinery which gave us the opportunity to produce face masks for all our major clients. This proved to be a successful investment as we went on to produce more than one million face masks.

“Now that Lockdown in SA is at Level 2, we have definitely seen an upswing in revenue. It will take some time to get back to the levels of last year, but we are definitely getting there.”

All facilities at Alligator are state-of-the-art and prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the business had invested in new machinery, upgrades, lean consultants and human capital. This helped position the business strongly for any eventuality.

“The factory has made huge strides over the past year thanks to continued support from both the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) and our lean manufacturing consultants,” highlights Marks. “We have focused our efforts on transforming the factory into a first-class manufacturing facility. DTI has given support with the purchase of the latest and most modern machinery giving the factory every chance of being able to compete on a worldwide scale. We are continuously looking for new technological advances to improve not only the factory but also every aspect of the supply chain. This, together with our lean consultants’ advice on how to implement best production practices is starting to bear fruit. Obviously, the long-term goal is job creation in a happy and sustainable workplace environment. This must be South Africa’s main goal, employment.”

OPPORTUNITY IN CHAOS?

 Over the past three decades, Alligator and the Marks family at the helm have overcome social, economic, political, financial and technological change and the company now sits proudly atop the market in South Africa. Many business threats have come and gone, and Alligator has survived and thrived through all. By creating new partnerships, looking at new opportunities, being innovative and agile, and by focussing on ethical business practices, the company will continue through the Covid crisis and the economic decay, always continuing to deliver.

“Both the political and economic environment in South Africa still offer unique challenges. Things can change very quickly. A political comment or the slightest concern of corruption can have a major impact on the ZAR from one day to the next and as Alligator is a net importer this can have a devastating effect on the performance of the company,” says Marks. “This brings a whole lot of challenges when you are a trading company.

“In addition, the world in general is in a state of turmoil. Whether it be the political landscape in the US, Brexit, trade wars between nations; all of these things frighten away investment in developing nations and this is of grave concern. However, by re-inventing ourselves and finding new avenues of business, we have managed to continue with our strong growth trend. One thing for sure though, no matter what challenge is thrown at us, the management team and staff are ready for it.”

There are many examples of Alligator’s nimble and bold approach. The launch of the company’s uniform offering in 2019 showed ambition and allowed Alligator to further a longstanding desire to enter geographic markets across the continent.

“With the development of the uniform offering our reach into Africa has increased and we have managed to make inroads beyond sub-Saharan Africa into East, West and North Africa.

We have also experienced considerable growth in our Cross-Trade business between China and many East and West African countries,” says Marks.

Product development has also advanced as clients look for evermore technical and exciting opportunities. “Design and Innovation are at the heart of our business model. Everything we do starts with a concept or an idea. Investing in creativity is of paramount importance,” confirms Marks.

“Climate change has been a major consideration when it comes to both product development and how we run our business. Whether it be waste control, energy efficient infrastructure or energy efficient product development (e.g. solar lanterns). There has definitely been a drive towards biodegradable and eco-friendly products from a creativity perspective and a push towards these products from a customer perspective. This is the way of the future.”

In manufacturing, a sector that has been decimated in South Africa over the past decade (Stats SA reported a ninth consecutive month of decline in manufacturing in February when a 2.1% year-on-year decreased was published), Alligator is proof that with ingenuity and innovation there is always opportunity to be found. As the Covid-19 pandemic passes its peak in SA, now is the time to look to the future and plan for re-growing businesses to be more sustainable and resilient against shocks. For Alligator, this will not be a problem.